Date Published:
January 2005

L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

Sir William Dillon Otter

Otter, Sir William Dillon (1843-1929), soldier, was born near Clinton, Ontario, on December 3, 1843, the son of Alfred William Otter and Anna de la Hooke. He was educated at the Toronto Model School and Upper Canada College ; and entered the volunteer militia in 1861. He was adjutant of the Queen's Own Rifles during the Fenian raid of 1866, and became lieut.-colonel commanding the regiment in 1874. He entered the permanent militia in 1883; and during the North West Rebellion of 1885 he commanded the column which marched on Battleford. Later he captured the Indian chief Poundmaker. He commanded the first contingent of troops sent to the South African War in 1899, and was wounded in action in 1900. From 1908 to 1910 he was chief of the general staff at Ottawa , with the rank of brigadier-general; from 1910 to 1912 he was inspector-general, with the rank of major-general; and during the Great War he was director of internment operations. He died at Toronto on May 6, 1929. Created a C.B. in 1900 and a C.V.O. in 1908, he was made a K. C. B. in 1913; and he was made an LL.D. of the University of Toronto in 1922. He was the author of The guide (Toronto, 1880), a military manual which went into many editions.

Source  : W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. V, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 401p., pp. 71-72.